Her bizarre predicament began about two weeks ago when Hanjin Shipping, one of the world's biggest cargo carriers, filed for bankruptcy protection in its home country of South Korea.

The move left hundreds of people stranded aboard scores of ships that were turned away from ports over fears they wouldn't be able to pay for things like docking and fuel.Hanjin has also been scrambling to stop creditors from having its vessels seized.

According to Kimberly Phillips, the director of the Vancouver gallery that runs the artist residency program, getting stuck in the middle of the ocean offers a "tremendous opportunity" for Moss' work.

"It actually underscores perfectly the aims of the residency in the first place," Phillips told CNNMoney. "A consideration of time and duration, unpinned from the cadence of everyday life, as well as an attempt to make visible a global system of seaborne freight that most of us remain blissfully unaware of."

The artist said the captain had told everyone on board to conserve food and water.

Phillips, meanwhile, is at pains to point out that Moss is far from alone in her predicament.

"We have ... noticed that this focus on a single artist caught within the immensity of an unsustainable capitalism seems to be eclipsing the experiences of many hundreds of crew and officers in the same (or far worse) situation," she said in an email.

Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the surname of the Vancouver gallery director.